The Rift
by My Vantilene
Summary: After Marceline helps Marshall Lee get rid of his competition for Fionna, her secret visits to the Land of Aaa weakens the border between their two dimensions, everyone is thrust into Aaa, and the reality of her mistake with Gumball illuminates.
1. Chapter 1

_If you are looking for the creator of Adventure Time, you have come to the wrong place._

Marceline waved from her front porch at the two departing adventurers with an anxious grin. Finn smiled back at her, a disbelieving gleam in his eye. Jake smiled back as well, but there was no real gleam in his eye, just the look of an obscured Oreo. He didn't really pay much attention to what was going on with Marceline lately, but she knew Finn had. And that's why she had to get there now more than ever. As the duo melted into the horizon, she lost all control of her composed veneer, and rushed back into her house, making a beeline for her living room. She drew a smiley face with circular glasses, but left out the five o'clock shadow and replaced it with long, flowing hair. A large oval opened up and she jumped swiftly in before the portal closed. A swirling onslaught of colors bombarded her on all sides and it took all her will power not to be thrown into her own Nightosphere.

You see, a couple weeks ago, while trying to visit her father, Marceline discovered a rift. The uncanny change in direction actually proved quite fruitful, as she met her version of herself in that dimension, Marshall Lee, the Vampire King. She wasn't really used to having anyone to talk to her about her life, and the same went for him, so the idea of having a twin brother rather than a male version enticed Marceline to the Land of Aaa every Thursday for her weekly visit. But, of course, she couldn't tell anyone in the Land of Ooo about the alternate universe, she had watched enough science fiction movies to realize that was a bad idea.

As the blues and yellows and reds gradually fade away, her feet are dropped onto firm ground and her eyes immediately scan the clearing for any sign of her twin brother. He's sitting by that apple tree they always lay under, thirteen roses in his hands, twelve white, one red.

"You saved that one for me?" Marceline smiled as Marshall Lee jumped, surprised at being suddenly ripped from his stupor of staring at the roses.

"Wha–? Oh. Sorry, Marceline. They're— they're not for you." He turned away to hid his blush.

"Glob, Marshall, that's a delicious color you got on your cheeks, there." She smiled, "Fionna, I presume?"

"You're evil." He shook his head and tried to ease his blush with a smile. "But yes."

"I still don't know why you even bother with her. She's obviously head-over-heals for Prince Blowpop."

"Gumball." He corrected, "And she'll come around. She's thirteen. She doesn't know she's aiming too high yet. I mean, yeah, she's more than worth royalty, but – you know, Princey might not exactly see it that way."

"Yeah. But this faze could carry on for years. You sure you want to wait that long?"

"I'd wait centuries." He brought the flowers closer to his chest, "I love her."

"Wow. That's a little feminine for my male version."

"Hey. I thought you promised we wouldn't use that word. And you don't understand. You probably haven't even fallen for Finn yet. Maybe there's a time difference between our two universes…how old are you, anyways?" She gave his shoulder a gentle slap,

"Don't you know it's rude to ask a lady her age?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever…But just watch out for Finn, okay? Odds are we have the same taste in…spouses."

"Dude. Don't ever say that word again. Ash said it a lot…" She averted her gaze to the edge of the sunset stretching out before them.

"Ash?" an evocative smile rose to his lips, "I have an ex named Ashlee. Always wanted me to make her dinner. Sold Hamba to a witch, that psycho. I spent a lot of my good years in that terrible relationship…"

"Lemme guess…Fionna brought you into her memories to see the memory she stole?"

"Yup. I guess your Finn isn't miles apart from my Fionna." He gave her a playful shove.

"Yeah, yeah, just because you're all hyped up on adventurers doesn't mean I am." She flew up to the tree and grabbed a red apple. With a smirk, she dug her fangs into the color and the crimson drained from its glossy skin. She tossed the pallid remains over her shoulder and drew back to where Marshall Lee sat.

"But if Blowpop—"

"Gumball…"

"Is really bothering you that much, it's easy just to sic Ice Queen on him."

"Yeah, tried that, didn't work. Fionna always comes to the rescue and they end up spending even _more _time together."

"You're right." Her eyes flitted to the side, "Finn spends half of his time saving Princess Bubblegum…"

"See, that's natural in your dimension. Damsel in distress isn't exactly something you want in a prince, but…Fionna just basically throws herself at him! Her blush is so obvious. The way she went to such lengths to get the perfect dress for their stupid ball tonight. How she goes out of her way to help Gumball with whatever he needs. And he _**NEVER**_ notices! Ha," he facetiously laughs with a dark undercurrent, "wish I had that luxury. I notice _everything_, and it's all so painful for me to just sit back and watch her being disappointed _time_ and _**time**_ again. He will _never_ appreciate her like I do! He just brushes her off as some subject, but she's far more than that and he's extremely lucky that she has her heart set on him. Luckier than I could ever be!" He grabbed the axe guitar in his hand and threw it at a branch, causing it to fall on the other side. The guitar came back to him just like a boomerang.

"Marshall!" she gasped, scooping up the roses in her hands to insure their safety. She put a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and looked at her. The same pair of lost, red eyes met each other. "Is she…really that important to you?" He nodded.

"And you would do anything for her?"

His eyes gleamed with an overwhelming answer.

"Then we need to find a way to get rid of Prince Gumball." She smiled sadistically, "And I have just the plan to do the trick."

_AN:_

_YEAAAAAAAAAUH._

_Anyways, I really like this story. I have this big overlay of how it's supposed to go and, let me tell you, it's going places. :DD But I have soooo many unfinished stories and I need to start prioritizing. Whichever has the most reviews/favorites of my incomplete stories gets the next update. _


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own hiatus— err, Young Justice, um, wait, Kingdom Hearts…? The World Ends With You? Final Fantasy XIII? No, uhh, Meet the Robinsons? Treasure Planet? Ben 10? The Door Within? Heroes? Dang it, I need to stop writing stories I can't finish…

_First of all, I don't check my FF account very often, it's normally my Deviant and Tumblr that I check, but this was my reaction to my legacy story stats. _

_#_#_

_O_O_

_0_0_

_*BOOM*_

_My mind exploded. I was expecting to see one, maybe two reviews for my first chapter, but FOURTEEN! I AM the happiest thing in the UNIVERSE. And I love how you guys saw where I was going with this. This thing is going places. PLACES! _

_So after my mind regenerated from that explosion, I was like I. Have. To. Write. For. These. Majestic. People. And I kind of stole a little tid-bit of this from someone with a DA account, and if I remembered their name I would credit them here. I'll have to see about it tomorrow. _

_It's 10:49 PM where I am now. Let's see what time it is when I finish. And I apologize if any of this is spazzy. I just wanted to get this written for you guys right away._

Prince Gumball smiled politely at the visiting royalty, and asked to be excused for a moment. He spotted Fionna in the crowd of people, and when their eyes met, she immediately looked away. He brushed off the jester, and continued to the stair case, where he proceeded to make it to his quarters. He really just needed a break for a second, and his quarters was private and secure, so no questions would be asked why he was missing from the ball he was supposed to be hosting. He flicked the switch to the room on, but the lights did not ignite, and the room stayed dark.

"Hmm…" he finagled it a couple more times, then a couple more just for the fun of it, before deciding maybe a break wasn't such a good idea. As he turned to go, a tuff of air pressed against the back of his neck, a deep, but still very feminine voice whispered into his ear.

"Hey, Princey. I've been expecting you…"

* * *

Marshall Lee knocked on the ornately grand door of the Candy Kingdom Castle, with a welling sense of growing strength. He wasn't wearing anything special, just his gray jeans with a black and red plaid shirt, but he hoped it was enough. Ages went by as he tapped his foot, waiting for the door to open. He passed the time by kicking at the ground and rehearsing what he would say when he found Fionna.

"Marshall! Marshall!" a voice called from the darkened horizon.

"Fionna?" There was the sound of pounding shoes on concrete, the familiar panting of an exhausted adventuress, and the usual smile of a job well done. The only thing not generic about the only human was her torn dress and the odd bundled object in her hands. As she got closer, he could make out exactly what he was carrying.

"Marshall! I…I…I found…Hamba!" she drank in deep breaths in between words.

"What?"

"I was about to go talk to Prince Gumball about…" she blushed violently, "…_things_…but I saw the witch outside. I recognized her," she lifted up Hamba in recognition with a sad smile, "from your memories, and since the witch had her, I just assumed—"

"You left the ball with Gumball for me?"

"Oh. Yeah, I guess I did." For a split second, he swore he could see a vibrant smile beaming on her face, "But, this is the real Hamba, right?"

"Y-yeah." Marshall Lee picked the stuffed animal from her hands and held it close. A tear made its way down his face, "This is Hamba."

* * *

"Wh-why are you doing this?" the prince asked Marceline as she finished tying the rope around him and the chair, "And where am I…?"

"My house, my dimension, my rules. Got it?"

"But who are you?"

"Marceline, the Vampire Queen." She claimed coolly, nonchalantly tuning her axe guitar.

"Are you…Marshall Lee's sister or something?"

"Or something." She laughed, hitting an A chord.

"But, what do you want with me?"

The Vampire Queen remained silent.

"Well, whatever dastardly plans you have in store, uh, just know that Fionna will notice I'm gone any second now and come! And uh…" his voice trailed off.

"Fionna…?" she questioned rhetorically, an omniscient ring to her voice as she set the axe guitar by her side, "Oh, I doubt that. Besides, aren't you a little tired of always having to be saved by her? I mean, glob, couldn't you just save yourself for once?"

He struggled against his strains vehemently to no avail. Marceline smirked knowingly as she saw how her taunts were affecting him.

"Sorry, my bad, didn't mean to excite you there. And I surely didn't mean to encourage any escape. It is, after all, futile. I was just pitching a question. A rhetorical question. You and I both know the answer. Now, the real question we should be asking is when your knight's going to show up, Princey." She cocked her head slightly, "If she does at all."

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. Now my turn to ask a question. What do you think of Fionna?"

"Well, she's very nice. Adventurous, I guess, is one of the main ways to describe her. Why?"

"Man, he was right. You _are _oblivious!"

"To what?"

"You know what? I shouldn't even tell you. It'll just make disposing of you all the more heartbreaking."

"You…you want to dispose of me?"

"That's the big idea, genius."

"Why?"  
"For Fionna's own good."

"What does that even MEAN?"

"Glob. This is just ridiculous." She shook her head. "Read my lips. Fionna. Is. Desperately. In. Love. With. You."

"What? No. Fionna's a friend. A very good friend, but still a friend."

"So you don't think of her as anything more than that?"

"No, not particularly."

"Then maybe this won't be heartbreaking. Maybe…it'll be fun."

_AN:  
Short chapter again. It's 11:58 right now and I have to go to bed. Got a pep rally in the morning. Yipee. I'm sorry for the crappy quality on this one. The next will be MUCH better…that is _if _you review. It all depends on you. _


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own AT. Gunther does.

_I can not BELIEVE you people! I loveloveLOVE all of you! The reviews made me smile. And for those of you who care, I'm currently struggling on the losing end of a love triangle at the moment, so every little bit counts. I kind of think I'm MADLY in love, but I'm only thirteen, so what do I know? :/ Also, I almost forgot to credit you AMAmazing people. A special thanks to_** ComicObsessioner, anonanon, purplecrazed, The MasterHama **_(big fan, by the way) _**purpledragon6, Neverthrive **_(also a big fan!)_**, RandomReader, unanamoose, Luneve **_(big fan of your AT and Pokémon stories)_**, E, Anon, Marzo, CandyIsYummyNomNom, Evilwings, Ashunra, Asdfghjkljoanneee, imginarygirl, Anon,****C'monGrabYourFriends, booknerdforever, **_ and _**GottaLoveMarceline **_who are all very majestic. But enough of my ranting, enjoy the story. _

The grass just beyond the Candy Kingdom was soft, and tickled Fionna's face as she rolled down the small hill, a jubilant smile springing to life on her lips.

"Oh, come on, Fionna. I thought _you_ were faster than _that_*****." Marshall Lee taunted, elation igniting his usually ethereal features.

"It's easy for you to say!" she giggled, standing up at the bottom of the sloping mound, "You're a pro at rolling!"

"I try." He laughed as he got in ready position, "But I still don't know if I'm going to win this round…" his voice trailed off with a sort of implying nature.

"Oh, just shut up and roll." She retorted facetiously.

"Whatever you say, adventuress." He murmured airily, beginning his roll. He stuck his feet into the ground to hinder his fall, and grunted at the shock of pain that shot up his leg. He made a quick decision and flew very close to the ground, making it look like he was still rolling, and made it to the bottom in less time than the human.

"Come on, you totally threw that one for me!"

"Nuh-uh," he shook his head, "You won fair and square."

"Whatever, I'm done with this game anyways." She claimed decisively, striding across the hill and plopping down on the side of it. Marshall Lee followed suit and laid down next to her.

"The stars are really pretty tonight." She whispered, wonder shining in her tone as she gazed at the crystalline lights scattered across the celestial entity known as the midnight sky.

"Yeah." He agreed, reaching over to where Hamba was and picking her up. He brought the treasured token to his chest once more and smiled.

"Thanks, again, by the way. For Hamba. I-I just—" he stopped himself from ranting, and explained with a steadier voice, "It means a lot to me."

"I'm glad."

"And Ashlee's still in extensive care, right…?"

"Thanks to Cake, yeah. Glad about that, too. I'm also kind of glad that I went after the witch instead of going to that stupid ball. I mean, PG probably would've been too busy to notice me, anyways." She sat up straighter and hugged her knees as she fought off a vehement blush.

"If you ask me, that's PG's problem. He's missing out on a great evening."

"A great evening, huh?" her chin brushed against the top of her knee as she turned away from him.

"Yeah." He replied, a little distracted. An amiable silence passed over them as their gazes both hung to the sky.

"You know how the stars formed, right?"

"No, not truly. Science isn't really my forte." (A/N: EPIC FORESHADOWING!)

"The stars used to be really small and out of focus, blinded by bigger lights—"

"Lights bigger than the stars? Really?"

"Yeah. Really." He smiled smugly, then frowned, "But then there was the war. There was a lot of violence, and they had bizarre weapons. Rockets that could make entire kingdoms go boom." He sat up straighter and hugged his knees as well, "And they used all of them. I was torn from my home, from everything I had ever known. The only thing left was Hamba, and I had to replace her eyes a lot. Oh, and of course my mom, but she wasn't really _around_, parse. I got my own place, that cave you guys found, and stole all the red foods I could eat. Wasn't a very honest living, but, ya know, we all did what we could to survive. Then they started to build kingdoms, Lumpy Space was formed out of the ashes of one of the biggest rockets they used, the Candy Kingdom was founded by a scientist, wizards formed the Northern Region, where the Ice Queen used to rule over, and everything else just fell into place. I met Ashlee, one of the wizards from the Northern Region, and we moved into that tree you and Cake live in. And— wait. Ugh!" he gave himself a good smack on the forehead, "That's right. I was telling you about the stars. Well, after the war, the stars were never blinded by bigger lights. The end." He finished bitterly.

"I'm so sorry Marshall, I-I didn't know."

"It's okay Fionna. I understand you've been through some hardships too. I mean, do you know where your parents are? Or any of your own species, even?"

"I guess that's what makes me special. I'm the only one."

"You're special in more ways than that, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So, how did you become Vampire King, then?"

"Well," he laughed, "There were no other vampires. So, I guess I kind of came up with the name when I left my mom after she ate my fries."

"Aww, and here I thought I was talking to royalty." She pouted flippantly.

"Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" he laughed.

"Not really. I'd rather just be with someone I can talk to." She beamed, "Like Prince Gumball."

"He's…royalty, you know."

"Well…yeah, I guess so. Except for that week when he was thirteen."

"I guess the good times never last. He's probably back to being that oblivious self he is again, am I right?"

"Well, I don't know about oblivious, but he sure is stiffer."

"Yeah, stiff, that's what I meant to say. Bon was always the stiff one."

"What do you mean? I thought you guys didn't hang out."

"We did. A while ago. When word got around that I was the vampire king, with people talking like LSP and such, I was invited to the Candy Kingdom Academy on a scholarship. I was thirteen at the time and Bon was in my class. For publicity purposes, and the fact we shared a dorm only, we hung out. Not. Fun. At. All."

"Why not?"

"We were always butting heads and arguing and— we just didn't get along. Well, actually…" he rubbed his chin, "there was that one time…"

"What one time?"

"We pulled a prank on the headmaster." He smiled at the memory, "He was making an elaborate contraption one night in our dorm. I told him he could use it for better purposes than some stupid science fair. Of course, he disagreed, but once we got talking about how ridiculous our headmaster was, we both got that gleam in our eye and knew exactly what to do. He was going to just make the contraption go off in his room and scare him, but I had a better idea. I wrote _you smell like dog buns_ on a sheet of paper and made his original design brilliant. We both got in trouble, but it was so worth it."

"Really, you're the one who did that prank?"

"Yeah."

"PG did the same prank with me to Lady Lemon Garb."

"Wow. Talk about recycling. But you know what? Why don't we get off the subject of Bon for a little while? It's giving me a headache."

"Well, what I was meaning to ask a little while ago was…what happened to your dad?"

"He died. I never got to know him. And after seeing how my mom was, I guess I didn't want to. But nowadays, sometimes when I look up at the sky, a sky just like this one, I wonder what would've been different if he had been alive."

"I wonder that all the time…"

"I'm sorry about the way your life turned out, too." He reached for her hand, and she didn't squirm from his grasp, which was obviously a good sign.

"I guess, I chose adventuring because I thought that maybe if I could bury myself in the task of saving princes and punching evil right in the _**FACE**_," she did a mini-karate chop for emphasis, "that I could get over that nagging feeling that tugs at my heart. It's just…_frustrating_, you know?" she scooted closer to him.

"Yeah, I know. I know exactly what you mean. You're not alone." By now, their faces were quite close together. Marshall Lee's heart began to speed up as their intertwined hands laced at the fingers. But then guilt set in. This girl in front of him was perfect, she had probably never lied in her life, and it wasn't fair that he was lying to her right now. It was selfish, what he did to Gumball— and Fionna, too, for that matter. But it wasn't necessarily lying, he convinced himself, he was just withholding information. It wasn't that much of a big deal, right? He was also withholding the fact that he sings in the shower, but what would it matter if he didn't tell her that? They're basically the same thing. He looked into her eyes, and an ocean of cerulean bored into his bellicosely crimson orbs. No, no it wasn't the same thing. He couldn't do this to her.

"Prince Gumball's in danger!" he blurted out, feeling like an idiot afterwards for ruining the moment.  
"Huh?" she looked dazed for a moment, before her eyes twinkled with realization. He guessed that maybe she had forgotten all about Gumball when they were about to kiss.

"Where?" she bolted to her feet and whipped her head back and forth, as if he would be in the sloping meadow, clear as day.

"He-he got transported…to another dimension."

"What?" she inquired, shock illuminating her features.

"Yeah. Like you haven't heard stranger."

"Touché." She began walking down the hill, but turned around before reaching the bottom.

"You coming, or not?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll help you. Cake is in the shop, isn't she?" he questioned once he caught up to her.

"Spa." She corrected, slightly annoyed, "And yes, yes she is." She picked up the pace and softened her tone, "So I really need your help right now."

"Anything for Aaa's greatest heroine." He claimed, his empty pitch and disappointed glare going unnoticed by the thirteen-year-old.

_AN:_

_Alrighty. This chapter was going to be WAAAAAAY longer, but I kind of want to wait for the Fionna and Cake thing to actually air so I can get my facts straight. I don't want to be delving into things I shouldn't. And as for the war thing, if you actually look at the show, there's heavy foreshadowing about a war that happened. In Marceline's memory, there was a bomb that had gone off in the background. In the opening theme, on the hill with the owl-looking-thing, there are bombs. And there are just several other hints to it. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and please REVIEW! It makes me implausibly happy._

**_*Cookies for whoever got this reference. _**


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Adventure Time. Let the games begin.

_WARNING: LONG AUTHOR NOTE, BUT PLEASE, STILL READ IT!_

_Alright, most of you can skip this part unless you're _**The MasterHama**_, because I have to apologize to you, and to do that, I have to rant. And, yes, the back story is not necessary, but I'm a writer, what did you expect me to do?_

_See, it was only a few weeks ago that I got really interested in Adventure Time. I mean, yeah, I watched the show and it's hilarious. And I went to Momocon dressed as Marceline (three of my other friends dressed as Jake, Finn, and Fionna), but my costume was crappy because I didn't have red boots, so I stapled red cloth to my combat boots, and I didn't have a wig, so I got a black hat and wrapped a black scarf around it. I'm ranting, I get that. But, see, now I'm extremely into it. And when I said I was a big fan of yours, it was because I had read the first three chapters of your story "Tree Stumps" and that Waltermis fic you made for Young Justice. (Though I support Artobin ALL THE WAY!) But then I started reading past chapter three, and I realized it must've looked like I stole a lot of my concepts now, and concepts to come, from you, but I promise, I didn't steal anything. I wrote my outline for this without even reading an Adventure Time fic, so I hope you're not upset or anything. And then I read that you started a contest and I'm like "Yeah! A contest with Finnceline! I'M IN MY ELEMENT!" But it ended before I got a chance. Sad face. And I realized that now there are a LOT of Finnceline and Fiolee out there. We're starting a revolution, BABY._

_This next part is specifically for _**Shhhh**_, because he/she is an anon and I can't PM him/her. Let me start off by saying, Marceline is my favorite character too. It's mostly because of Finnceline that I got into the show. And Rainicorn's male part is Lord Monochromicorn. It's funny, because in stems it means one-color, as oppose to Rainicorn's many colors. Also, I'm glad you picked up on the fact that Marshall Lee _is _acting a little too love-sick. There's a reason for that, and that is only just one side of him. What I'm going to clarify in this chapter is that he is still Marceline's male version, therefore, they have nearly the same personalities, the difference in Marshall's being that he has experienced true want and desire for someone he can't have. He only shows this soft side to himself (which includes Marceline) and sometimes Fionna. And the word you mentioned I got wrong, finagle, I assure you, I know what it means. It means to shift something around to fit, or just to configure something. And about Marceline's hots (lol, that's not a word) for Finn being missing from the equation of— I don't know — logic…? Don't worry about it. I know how that's going to work out and I _will _tie all the loose ends. Thank you for the review, I appreciate it immensely. I loveloveLOVE it when people give me beefy reviews!_

_And _**BlackMarionette**_, it's nice to hear from you again. xD_

_Also, no one got cookies, sadly. I think _**The MasterHama **_got confused on what reference I was talking about. It was a Kingdom Hearts reference. A famous and repeated line through multiple scenarios in the Square Enix video game goes "Come on, Sora, I thought _you _were stronger than _that_." Come on, _**BlackMarionette**_! I thought you would've gotten that one. xD _

_Also (also) I just received news on our group's theme for Momocon this year. It's Fionna and Cake. How ironic. :D I'm being Cake (I'm not black, for the record, I can just do an awesome accent), and some of my friends are being Fionna (different friend this time), Marshall Lee, and Prince Gumball (ironic, this is the only guy out of our cosplaying group).I found a pretty good hat for Cake, and I'm making the tail myself. The rest will be just orange-dyed white shirt and pants. _

_*End Rant*_

_ICE KING'S FANFICTION! _

_#_#_

_O_O_

_0_0_

_BOOM._

_*Begin chapter IV*_

"Are you sure we're doing this right?" Fionna questioned, hovering over Marshall Lee's shoulder as he drew.

"Yeah. Just go get me the buttermilk."

"And you've done this before?" she called from the kitchen, as she tore off the top of a milk carton with her bare hands.  
"Well, have you ever done that before?" he gestured to the torn milk carton and her shaking hands.

"Um, er, can we just get this portal up and running? I'm tired of waiting around. It makes me feel useless."

"Okay…" he murmured, taking the milk carton from her hands. With his tongue outstretched in concentration, he expertly drained its contents onto the sketch and chanted the fell incantation in Latin. He grabbed Fionna's hand, his pack filled with red food for the road, and the two were off, twirling through the very fabric of reality.

* * *

"Give it to me!" Finn screamed, a wraithlike shriek itching in his throat and blasting forward like mentos and diet coke.

"Are you crazy, boy?" the witch asked, his/her (the gender was really undetermined) brows furrowing incredulously.

"No, you're the crazy one, LADY!" he cried as he lunged at it. No, he couldn't tell if it was a man or a lady, but what kind of a man bartered for things like that? He just had to assume it was a woman. Besides, it's more insulting for a woman to be called a man, than for a man to be called a woman.

Its confusing gender aside, the witch was putting up a pretty good fight. Despite how many times he struck with his gleaming sword, there was always a block, and none of the blows managed to land a single hit. But Finn was smarter than that. Er— he was better at pretending he was smarter than that. He had kinda made a pledge to be stupid forever… But no matter. Whatever ersatz — or legitimate — knowledge he had told him to reach into her/his pocket and fish out what he needed. After completing the task, both faux and genuine intelligence mangled together as he made an all-out run for it.

* * *

"You're up early." Marceline noted dully as she scribbled down some words and notes onto a pad of paper.

"It's 10:00 AT NIGHT. Why won't you let me GO?" Prince Gumball asked, frustration bubbling in his voice.

"Because I have to dispose of you. Duh." She explains, erasing her B flat off of the treble clef. "But before I can do that," she went on, "I have to make sure everything else is running smoothly…" she shook her head, "…you know what? I'm going to go do that right now." She put down the pad of paper where she had been composing her new song, and headed for the kitchen.

"How is buttermilk going to help your plan run smoothly?" Prince Gumball asked skeptically as she pulled the creamy beverage out of the fridge.

"Don't doubt the power of buttermilk, Princey." She retorted as she placed it on the end table of her couch. She drew the symbol, then doused it in the buttermilk. After a strange mumbling of words, she was gone.

* * *

"Hey, bro, why you running so hard?" Jake questioned as Finn ran up to him and his spot on the porch of their glorious tree abode.

"Marceline…wasn't…at…her…home."

"And…?"

"I…wanted…to…" he panted, but was cut off by a vivid explosion of color that bursted against the starry night sky. A thunderous boom sounded, and a violent wave of air threw both adventurers to the ground.

"Finn!" a familiar, but at the same time, unfamiliar voice boomed in his ear, louder than expected. When the smoke cleared, it was apparent that Finn, Jake, and the two strangers were all tangled in a heaping mess.

"Ow! That's my le— who…are you guys?" he interrogatetd while pulling himself out of the dog pile.

"My name's Fionna, and this is Marshall Lee, the Vampire King."

"'Sup." He flashed them a 'rock on' hand sign.

"Are you like Marceline's brother or something?"

Fionna and Marshall Lee side-glanced at each other.

"Or something."

* * *

Prince Gumball was sweating buckets in anticipation for the Vampire Queen's return. The house seemed more terrifying with no one else, even if that someone else wants your head, for company. Every shadow in the house was out to get him. Every creak in the floor boards was a haunted moan. The dwindling candle on the table was dwindling away his sanity, burning it like a fuse until there was nothing left. Every moment spent in agonizing silence, or with the creaks, was another moment Gumball thought he would die from anxiety.

And then he heard it.

That wicked laugh, high-pitched and squeaky was ringing in his ears distantly. He tried to dismiss it as his overactive imagination, but then it got louder. It refined, and was heard with more clarity. Out of a vat of tumbling colors, trampling over one another in a vicious cycle, came the Ice Queen.

* * *

The alter-dimensional duo was sitting on Finn and Jake's couch, waiting for a response after giving their full and unabridged explanation.

"Someone stole your Princess Bubblegum? That's so unmath!" he examined Fionna, then moved to peruse Marshall Lee, who had shifted underneath his gaze.

"Yeah…" Marshall nodded, "So, you can understand why we came here for your help."

"What?" Fionna inquired, her head whipping around to meet his eyes, "I thought you said we were doing this on our own."

"We need help, okay?" he gave her an I'll-explain-late-look. Then he turned back to Finn, but his eyes soon wandered to Jake, and a devious grin sprouted where his lips should've been.

"Will you guys help us?" Fionna asked in an exasperated tone.

"Of course! We're ALL about helping people!"

Jake was about to concur, when his sharp, canine ears detected a low hiss. He jumped, dropping the jelly donut in his hand. Marshall caught it and sunk his fangs into it, extracting the red from the saccharine center.

"Haha, thanks Cake-dog."

"Jake." Finn corrected on behalf of his bro, who was too terrified to say anything at the moment.

"You'll help, too, right Jake?"

He eyed the vampire as all of his limbs shook. Marshall caught on and stared at him too, flashing his eyes from blue to red before warping behind him and whispering,

"Boo."

Jake then blessed all of the occupants of the room's ears with his delightful "scream song."

"Wait, how did you do that? I've never seen Marceline teleport."

"It's a trick I picked up from—" he paused as his eyes transitioned from crimson back to cyan, "Well, I guess it doesn't really matter. Must be a slight time difference between our two dimensions."

"Alright, but if we help you, could you stop terrorizing Jake?"

"Never." He claimed calmly, slurping up the rest of the inner remains.

"Marshall!" Fionna gasped.

"I _thought_ you said you needed our help." Finn crossed his arms.

"Yeah, we do, but not that badly." He quite floating for a moment, and stood, "Come on, Fionna, let's go."

"You're going to pass off their help just because you can't mess with Jake?"

"Basically." He shrugged, "That is half the fun of hanging out with you. Being able to terrorize your cat."

"Half?" for a split second, he swore he could see a heartbroken look flash across her face.

"No, not half. More like 5%. No — it's more like a bonus." he stuttered, internally slapping himself for making such poor word choice.

"Oh. Okay." Her voice was hallowed with disappointment.

Finn eyes analytically flitted between the two other-dimensional beings, realization setting in with a smirk.

"Fine. We'll help you, _and _you can scare the zip out of Jake."

"Hey!" Everyone ignored the super-powered dog.

"What's the catch?" Marshall Lee looked him up and down suspiciously.

"It's just a tiny one, really. I just need a favor…"

"Sure. Whatever it is, we'll do it."

_AN:_

_Cliffy! And yeah, if you didn't notice, Marceline's eyes are blue sometimes and red sometimes, so I incorporated the idea that the color kind of goes either with their mood or their will, so that's why his eyes were changing in this. __So, this was short and choppy because I am knee-deep in fabric making my Cake costume, working on flipping hard homework that, yes, is math, but not in the Finn way, uploading pics to deviantart, drawing pics for deviantart, cooking and cleaning up dinner, and practicing my audition piece for the talent show. I also uploaded my Teen Titans series audition and got the part! So you can expect to hear my voice in RobinFanFilm's new production as Wonder Girl. My accounts for both DA and youtube are on my profile page, if anyone wants to check that out. Review, cause it makes me happy and update faster. _


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: SURE.

_I was right! Lord Monochromicorn DOES talk in Morse code! (when he taps his hoof, it's a dot, when he drags it, it's a dash.) I totally knew it. :D Also, the girl who plays thirteen-year-old Bubblegum is sisters with the girl who played young Marceline. And on the contraption they put in Lemongrab's room, there's that smiley face used to get into the Nightosphere. And during "The Real You" when it does that zoom in of his mind, where it shows the cells, then the molecules and atoms, then is shows the earth and on the earth it zooms into where they are, the Earth is missing a big chunk. You'll be surprised what you can notice when it's 1:00 in the morning and you're going through your DVR and Adventure Time just so happens to start with an A. Also (yes, scatterbrained here) I learned Why Did You Eat My Fries? On the guitar because I accidentally messed things up for my bro at his work, so I snuck into my sister's room, stole her guitar, looked up countless how-to-play-guitar sites, that most of which cost money I didn't have , learned the whole song left handed, then had to go back and learn the whole song right handed, and considering this is the first _actual _song I've learned how to play, it was pretty good. _

_Now, one reviewer told me "YOU! UPDATE!" so I think that's just what I'm going to do. _

"How _LONG _have we been walking for?" complained Fionna.

"I haven't been walking at all." Sang Marshall Lee from his perch, floating above the human with a glibly grin. Then his face became serious,

"But I am a little hungry. Would you be a dear Fionna and toss me a red gelatin from the pack?"

"Bite my used tampon." She claimed bitterly, trudging her onyx-clad feet further to gain distance on the 1,000+-year-old.

"Wait. That's what those were?"

"Ugh! Marshall, that's disgusting!"

"You know, we wouldn't have to walk for so long if someone would help me calm Jake down. That way he could just give us a ride." Finn suggested.

"But that would be a waste of energy." Fionna stated flatly as she aimed her eyes accusingly at the vampire who just seemed to be having the time of his life, "Marshall Lee would just scare him again, and then where would we be?"

"Walking, I guess." Finn shrugged.

"Ugggggggggggh." Fionna let out an exaggerated groan.

"Is walking really that horrible?" Marshall questioned, trying to hide his expectant smile.

"When it's been more than a few hours, yeah."

"Then allow me to help you." He feigned genuine manners, and swept the girl off her feet, carrying her in the air bridal style.

"Better?"

"Uh…yeah." She answered, her gaze straying from the moon-lit scenery below to Marshall's bipolar eyes, which were settling on blue at the moment.

* * *

"Let go of me!" Gumball demanded as the Ice Queen chained him to the wall.

"I'll do what I want with you." She claimed gruffly, but still squeakily in some odd way.

"How did you find me there?" _Wherever "there" was. _

"The Vampire Queen left a portal opened, creating a crack in reality at that cave over there." She pointed out the window, past the ocean, and to a magenta island.

"Marshall Lee's house?"

"Oh, yes, he sent his other half to get rid of you, but failed to notice the little kink in his 'flawless' plan."

"His other half?"

"In the Land of Ooo, a dimension that, until a couple weeks ago, was parallel to this one, there is an opposite gender version of all of us. That was Marshall's."

"But why would he want to kill me?"

"You know, you really shouldn't ask so many questions. It makes you seem ignorant."

"But then where is Marshall now?"

Ice Queen just stared at him to let the lesson sink in. After a few minutes of staring at his blank expression, she groaned and replied.

"He's in the Land of Ooo right now, trying to steal your girl."

"But I don't have a girl…"

"Fionna?"

"She's my pal."

"Man. You still don't get it, do you?"

"I know! I know she likes me. But why is this all about how _she _feels? A relationship can't be one-sided enable for it to work. I'm not oblivious, I'm just reluctant to break my best pal's heart, okay? Is that SO wrong? Am I _honestly _being punished for liking someone else?"

"You like someone else?" her snowy white eyebrow arched hungrily for an answer.

"That is none of your business, Ice Queen."

"Oh, I suppose you're right. But I wonder why a portal exactly like the one at Marshall Lee's house was found in your bedroom when we raided the Candy Kingdom…"

"Wha—? You raided the Candy Kingdom? Wait a minute — we?"

"What did I say about questions, boy? But if you must know…I stumbled upon my other half while in Ooo…" she threw her head back and arched her back, launched in a full-concentrated cackle. After a time, she finally became satisfied with her laugh and lit a candle. Without Gumball's eyes relying on the moonlight alone anymore, he could make out other entities cuffed to the wall as well.

"Dr. Princess!" he gasped, "How did you know she was the one I was visiting?"

"Because apparently you told stories about me. She recognized me the minute I walked in." Ice Queen paced around Dr. Princess's out-cold form, not really paying any mind to the way her feet trampled over her green-pigmented legs. She stopped pacing and smiled, lifting the candle to an unlit corner of the room.

"And this is Princess Bubblegum. Your other half."

"That is sick Ice Queen. Sick."

"Oh, don't get to thinking like that. She's just a present for my accomplice. And _you _are mine." She gesticulated with her eyebrows suggestively. She placed her cold, frigid fingers on his chin.

"Oh, do lighten up, would you, Gum Gum? You're killing the mood."

* * *

"We finally made it." Fionna beamed from her front-row seat in Marshall's arms.

"Eh." Shrugged Marshall Lee, sticking out his tongue in disapproval.

"What was that for?"

"I can't stand the Candy Kingdom."

"You went to school here once; you might find you actually like coming back."

"Not in this dimension." He deflected bitterly.

"Well, you're going to have to stand it. For me." That provoked a cherry hue from the usually pale vampire.

"Um…ok." He agreed, suspiciously out of character. A knowing half-smile crept up Finn's face, but it soon disappeared after getting a glimpse of the Candy Kingdom. Or what was left of it.

"Oh, no."

"We're too late." Marshall Lee gasped, flying closer to the ground to get a better look, "I didn't think it would come to this."

"Come to what?" Fionna questioned, immediately after, she was dropped onto the graham cracker pavement.

"Hey!" she cried, feeling her head for any injury.

"Oh my glob, I'm so sorry, Fionna! I wasn't paying attention and—"

"What did you mean by that?" she brushed the crumbs off of her and stood up, "By what you said?"

"I…uh…"

"Hey! Guys, I think I found something!" called Finn. Fionna ran over, not really trusting Marshall to carry her any more, and Marshall made it to their spot by his own means of transportation.

"A trail of ice." The adventurer clarified.

"There are two trails of ice."

"Does this mean…?"

"Neither of our dimensions are safe." Marshall diagnosed.

"What are we going to do?"

"Well," the king began, "it's too late to really devise a plan of action. I suggest we make camp, and then decide what to do in the morning when we're all rested." The two other conscious members of their party nodded.

"I'll get Jake squared away." Fionna volunteered, opening her arms toward Finn, who was carrying his bro ever since he fainted from one of Marshall's pranks. He converted the unconscious dog from his arms to Fionna's and watched her disappear into the wreckage.

"We better get started making camp. I'll get a fire going, you salvage the remains of the castle to make a shelter. After Fionna comes back, we'll see how many Candy people are still alive. Though I don't know how many of them are left, what with them exploding when scared and junk." He snapped his fingers, and a fire started at his feet. Satisfied with his work he jumped in the air and laid in an invisible hammock, his hands folded behind his head.

"Really. You're just going to lay there?"

"I did my job."

"You snapped your fingers."

"Are you're telling me there's not a fire there?"

Finn just glared at him.

"Fine. Whatever." He jumped back to his feet, "But if I find anything red, it's mine."

"Fair enough." He grumbled, sticking his hands gruffly into his pockets.

"Whoa. Who put grumpy in your flakes this morning?"

"You don't get it, do you? This is where Princess Bubblegum lives! The Ice King obviously has her, or she's dead. Or she's injured. Her whole kingdom has fallen apart. And I wasn't here to stop it! All because of this stupid thing!" he took the thing he stole from the genderless witch and threw it onto the ground. Marshall Lee stopped in his tracks to stare at it. The sounds of Finn ranting had hazed out of conscious reach, and he didn't want to listen anymore, even if that was a possibility. Everything else frosted over and blurred. But that one object stayed clear.

"It's not stupid." He claimed hollowly. His eyes began to water as he scooped up the stuffed bear in his arms. "You don't understand."

"I don't understand? People died, Marshall!"

"Math, math, I should have known," he shook his head, rambling to himself more than to the angered human beside him, "Aaa and Ooo. This is what Fionna was doing when…Finn!" he swept around on his heel and ushered Hambo into his arms, "You have to keep this safe, do you understand me?"

"No. No I don't! I have to keep PB safe, not this stupid thing!"

"For the last time it. Is. Not. Stupid!" his eyes flickered to red, and the night sky bled the same color, almost dripping down to touch the grass that wilted in its glow. Trees began to unstitch from the ground as the roots unfastened. The wind began to pick up and became a wild, bellicose screech. A miniscule creek coursing through the damaged city burned with voracious fire, and smoldered the sweet ground it eroded. Pebbles sifted upward, as did Marshall's hair, gravity seemingly had no effect anymore.

"Marshall! Calm down! I'll keep it safe, okay? I'll keep it safe!" Almost as fast as everything had gone haywire, it went back to normal. Marshall fell to the ground in shock and shook his head once more.

"It happened again…" he murmured under his breath, "I swore I'd never let it happen again, not after—"

"Are you okay, Marshall?" he inquired, offering a hand in assistance.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." He hissed through his teeth, taking his hand and getting to his feet again, "Have…have you ever seen Marceline do that?"

"No…"

"Oh…" _Maybe there is a difference between our two dimensions after all._

"So…what's up with you and Fionna?"

"W-what do you mean?" he quickened his floating pace and Finn had to jog to keep up with him.

"I mean, it's a little more than obvious you're into her."

"I-it is…? I mean, pfft. Me and Fionna? She's like my sister or — something else that's not romantically involved…with, you know, me…" Finn just crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"It's that obvious…isn't it?"

"Not really. She's pretty oblivious." He gave a cheeky grin, "Like Gumball."

"Yeah, like G—_ hey_. Wait!" Finn turned to run, but Marshall already had a death grip on his (AWESOME!) hat, "How did you know that?" Finn shook his head, the grin still mischievously plastered to his face. Marshall lifted him higher in the air by his hat, and his sanguine demeanor was completely vanquished as he squrimed.

"Okay! Okay! Fine!" he took a leather worn volume from his pocket and flipped through the aging pages. "This fell out of your pocket when you picked up Fionna. You two were so busy talking and Jake was out cold, so…"

"You read my journal?"

"You _have _a journal?"

"Touché." He paused a moment, "Hey! Wait! Not touché. That was an invasion of my privacy. Do you go through Marceline's diary? You know what? Don't answer that question, but just know if you do — that is sick and wrong."

"Oh, don't lose your math, I never took Marceline's diary…and, um, do you mind…?" he pointed to the ground his feet weren't touching.

"Oh, yeah, of course." He set the boy back down on his feet and snatched up the journal from his hand. Maybe he had forgotten because Fionna acted so mature, but Finn was thirteen. He couldn't be trusted to handle that level of temptation.

"So, I'm sorry about Fionna being so oblivious and stuff." He apologized, fishing through ruins of the saccharine walls for decent shelter materials, "I know how you feel. No matter how hard I try, Princess Bubblegum never seems to notice me. Or, well, you know. Like _that_."

Either he didn't get the relation between Fionna and himself, Marshall decided, or he was more oblivious than both Gumball and Fionna combined.

_AN:_

_Gumball romantically involved with Dr. Princess? Princess Bubblegum captured? Jake out cold? Ice Queen more put together than Ice Queen? Foreshadowing too obvious? Maybe we'll see some familiar faces inside the ruins of the Candy Kingdom, hmm? Don't you love me? Choppy questions, don't you love _them_? Or am I insane? Let me know with a review? Hmm? Please? _


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: If I've told you once, I've told you a million times.

_OMSG, so SORRY! I had the talent show (I am the two year reigning champ of most original performance), I updated a giftfic because I felt bad about giving my friend a half chapter when she drew the most AMAmazing picture for it, and I started another fic (pretty stupid of me, huh?) for another one of my friends. I'm also deeply enthralled by the Hunger Games series. I've been searching everywhere for Catching Fire. And The Missing series by Haddix has taken up most of my time because I am a sucker for five things: Men with daddy issues, men with low self-esteem, men with memory loss, men with complicated pasts, and time travel. The Missing has a junk load of time travel in it. I also started the Uglies series which, to be honest, I don't think it's all that great because I pick up on foreshadow and symbolism too easily, but I started it, so I want to finish it. Long story short, I've been reading too much. If you have any other good books you'd like to suggest, please inform me with a review. (No Twilight!) I'd really appreciate it. And I hope _you _really appreciate this chapter. _

The helix of the flame coiled and recoiled as it sifted through the sugary remains, fastidiously pondering over its meal choices. It was certainly a picky fire, not even touching the pieces of gingerbread that were once a grand door to a grand palace. It liked the gum drops, though. Once the candy was completely vanquished, it left behind a few ashy crumbs that the fire would voraciously devour, and within the next minute, Marshall had to toss another one in the smoldering mass of oranges and yellows and reds. He stared dreamily into it, wondering if the reds would taste as good as bowtie-reds… A pat on the shoulder wretched him from his stupor and his eyes met Fionna's.

"Jake's all situated," she began, "You might want to check on Finn…"

"Why should I?" he asked bitterly, tossing another one into the bottomless pit of a fire.

"You're the one who started it." She nudged him gently, her words peeling from her lips in a soft and comforting manner. But what they meant still bothered him.

"I am _not _the one who started it!"

"Come on, Marshall, he's _thirteen_. You're 987 years older than him. Act like it."

"That kid needs to learn some manners."

"You know that's me you're talking about."

"You are not _him. _You are nothing like _him_."

"You're right." She sighed, "There's something different about this dimension, and it's not just the genders, but I can't put my finger on it…But whatever it is, it was not worth hurting him like that."

"He deserved it."

"What on _Aaa_ did he do to deserve that?"

_Ooooooo! Flashback!_

_Finn was putting the last finishing touches on the gingerbread overhang that would have to do them the night, when Marshall noticed exactly where Hambo was placed. _

"_What the heck, Finn?"_

"_What?"_

"_Why did you put him there?" he scooped the stuffed bear in his hands and held it to his chest. _

"_It's just a bear. Geez, so it may have gotten a little wet. But no harm done, right?"_

"_How many times do I have to tell you? He. Is. Not. Just. A. Bear."_

"'_Kay whatever." He turned back to fixing a few useless things on the temporary shelter and whispered under his breath, "Didn't know Marceline's other half was such a pansy…" _

_Marshall remembered that he had read the diary — ahem — journal. He knew almost everything. And the nerve of that punk! Before Marshall Lee knew what was happening, his fists were raised and aimed against the mortal. He let out a war cry and Finn was knocked into the air, skidding to the ground a couple of yards in the opposite direction. He let out a grunt and brandished his chipped sword. He stood up unsteadily and charged at Marshall. With a calm expression, he put Hambo down and simply side-stepped out of the way. Finn went hurtling into their newly built shelter. He grunted once more and came running at him again. Marshall grabbed him by the collar before his sword could make contact with him and lifted his chin at the squirming human. _

"_Uh-huh. I'm the pansy. At least my crush doesn't have bubblegum for a brain!" he threw the boy across the sweet, shattered ground. _

"_Well at least _I'm _not a pedophile!" he retorted weakly from the ground._

"_At least my crush is in my league." Marshall folded his arms. _

"_Ha," he snorted, shakily getting up, holding his sword in a wobbly stance, "You wish."_

_He charged toward him again, but Marshall just nonchalantly caught the blade in between his hands. He spun it around and held it underneath his arm, the hilt sticking out in front of him. He javelined the sword into the distance and dodged a punch from the enraged human. Once a second fist was fired, Marshall took his hand and threw him behind his back like a rag doll. With a sickening _thud, _Finn landed on a broken piece of a candy cane fence. He dragged the jagged piece out of his side and threw it at the vampire. He swiftly dodged it, and came after Finn. But half way into his run, Finn yelled,_

"_You know, I'm starting to think the oblivious one is you! Can you not realize she's not into you? I mean, how could she be? Who could love a monster like you?"_

_Marshall's hair started to rise and he could feel the ground lose balance slightly below his feet._

"_Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!" he grunted. He gave one last hatred filled gaze at Finn, then ran off. _

_Oy! End of Flashback!_

"It was nothing. I just — I got a little out of control, sorry."

"Uggggh," she gave an exaggerated sigh, "Marshall Lee what am I going to do with you?"

"Well, if you really want me to, I guess it couldn't hurt to check on him…"

"Just don't kill him again, okay?"

"Whatever…" he made his way to the rebuilt shelter and stepped in to where Finn was.

"You okay?"

"P-p-peachy."

"Listen I'm sorry about the whole—"

"Is Fionna with you?"

"No…"

"Jake still awake?"

"That was an uncanny rhyme, but no, I don't think he is."

"Good. I need to talk to you about something." He looked up at him from the makeshift cotton candy bed with honest eyes.

"What?"

He sighed, "It's time I explained some things."

"Like what?"

"I've known about the rift for years."

* * *

Prince Gumball assumed he had waited long enough, and that Ice Queen wouldn't be coming back for several more minutes. That gave him enough time to wake up the other prisoners.

"Bubblegum!" he scream-whispered, just in case Ice Queen barged in during his attempt.

"Wha—?" she gasped as her eyes fluttered open.

"Gumball! They got you to?"

"Yeah. But I'm planning an escape plan. Can you tell me all you know about the operation?"

"Well, Ice King's a little incompetent, so I think it's really Ice Queen who's running the show."

"Good. We might have a better chance of tricking him, does he come up here often?"

"Listen, Gumball, I understand what you're trying to do here. But honestly, it's futile. We might as well wait."

"Wait for what?"

"To be rescued."

"I've spent my entire _life _being rescued. Do you think, for once, I could do it for myself?"

"It's less complicated if we wait. I understand what you're trying to prove, but, trust me, science is our forte, not prison breaks. Shouldn't we just trust Finn or Fionna to save us?"

"Aren't you tired of it? Playing the helpless damsel in distress? Being the feckless neophyte? Don't you want to stand up for yourself for once?"

"What would happen to Finn or Fionna if princes and princesses started saving themselves? We all have our niches and it'd be stupid to tamper with them, but, maybe, I am a little tired. But nothing is worth disrupting the balance of nature. You know what happened over a century ago? You remember what the cause of that was?"

Prince Gumball shifted his eyes away. Clearly his other half didn't know as much about the Mushroom War as he did.

* * *

Marshall closed the half-baked door and swept around to stare at the thirteen-year-old expectantly.

"Explain." He demanded.

"Okay, okay. I found a portal in Billy's cave to Aaa. When I got there, I met Prince Gumball. There was a warm welcome, but he kept me a secret the whole time I was there. I explained to him how I got here and he ran a few experiments. He made a rift himself and found his way to Dr. Princess. They began to spend a lot of time with each other…" he winced, "Then a year or two later, he came to me and said you and Marceline were visiting each other. I kind of noticed something different about Marceline. She was more at peace, and, yet, more on edge. I don't know why, but he said that it as dangerous for you two to be seeing each other, though I know on his visits to Dr. Princess, he says hi to Princess Bubblegum. He plays dumb about it sometimes, but I know. He seems to play dumb about a lot of things. He knows about Fionna's crush on him, and he knows about your crush on her. He's really sorry, and he would've apologized to her sooner if it didn't require him explaining the rift. And he mentioned you…but what he said was really vague. Like a warning. He said that if I ever met you, I should keep on my toes. I didn't really know how to take that so…well, you saw what happened. I'm sorry, I was really asking for it. I know Hambo's special. I missed PB's ball to save him from a witch. I just — I don't know. I was confused after reading your journal about who to believe. I was mad that PB was gone. Sorry, again. About everything. I just — I'm just…" he scratched the back of his neck, "I'm confused."

"Well, I haven't been too honest with any of you really. There's something I have to confess…you know what the Mushroom War is?"

"Vaguely. Prince Gumball explained it to me. Sort of. Seemed very uncomfortable talking about it."

"That sounds like Princey, alright." He smiled, "Always a softie. But he has a right to be. He's kept a secret of mine for awhile. See, my relationship with Bon is pretty complicated. I don't know what you would call us, friends? Enemies? We were more like fighting brothers, I guess, in the sibling-rivalry kind of way. Contrasting characters is another way to put it. But whatever kind of twisted friendship we had dissipated once I developed my feelings for Fionna. But he still seems to have kept the secret. He's trustworthy, if nothing else…"

"What secret?"

"I'm not going to tell you in full now, just, please, whatever you do…" he began heading for the door, his profile silhouetted as he turned back for a brief second before heading out, "Don't get me mad."

_AN:_

_VEGETA'S MUSTACHE._

_0_0_

_O_O_

_#_#_

_*BOOM!*_

_PS: Review or Merlin's beard WILL kill you. _


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the sort.

_I love all of you AMAmazing people. Speaking of AMA…why don't you guys stroll over to Youtube and check out For Narnia by AMA. It's my brother's band and they are pretty legit. And I'm still taking book suggestions. Please. I hate that feeling of running out of books to read. It's like that feeling when you're underwater and running out of air._

(WARNING! I stole the countdown clock for the Reaper's Game from The World Ends with You because I needed some oomf. Now I need you to trust me, not flame me.)

**E**_**l**_** C**_**h**_**a**_**p**_**t**_**e**_**r **_**V**_**I**_**I (**_**Aka the one where confused people may be thrown off. But then again, so will my pursuers.**_**) **_

_A silver haired four-year-old girl with an onyx tank top and a belted gold sack of prestidigitation walked alongside a five-year-old vampire. They were on a dark beach, the sun replaced by a pale moon, and the dazzling sand replaced by ashes and other forms of molten rock. A cloudy broth blocked the view of the stars, but curtained for the moon and all of its majesty to shine through, specifically aiming for the children. _

"_What's that thing on your hand?" the female wizard pointed to the navy letters outlined in a brighter blue luminescent radiance that creased his palm's life line. He curled his hand into a fist, concealing the blemish that was counting down from 127:34:09._

_127:34:08._

_127:34:07._

"_It's nothing."_

_127:34:06._

"_Doesn't look like nothing. I could've sworn it was moving. Did you get a magical tattoo? I knew the money in my swear jar wasn't walking away by itself." She gave him an accusing look._

_127:34:04._

"_I didn't steal any of your money, Ashlee. It's not like you have any money anyways, you never pay when you swear. Only I have to do that."_

_127:34:02._

_127:34:01._

_127:33:59. _

_The countdown sped up and the scene changed, like pieces of a mosaic re-sequencing themselves to fit a different image. It was a blonde man in a lab coat, holding a test tube bubbling over the top with a pink liquid inside in one hand, and with the other he was holding a sleek, metallic device, talking to it as if it was a person._

"_Listen, Honey, I'm working late again tonight at the lab…yes, I know it's been the seventh time this week…that may be true, but — just keep the girl safe…I know you're no match for the toxins, that's why I'm working on a vaccine, but just…mhmm…I know…why don't you use the cryogenic pods?...I'm sorry but that's a risk I'm willing to take…millions are going to die, Celeste! I can't let my own family be part of that number!...yeah, what about him?...No…What do you mean, why not? I'm not going to sacrifice my family for that failed research…how could you say that? I —" he turned to see the small boy sitting in the corner, his arms wrapped around his knees as tears cascaded down his pale cheeks. He raised a slightly amused, slightly angry eyebrow at him. The kid had found a clever hiding spot and would probably have stayed surreptitiously immersed in darkness if he hadn't released a dead-give-away sniffle. _

"_I'll call you back, Honey. Just do what I told you to do." He set the phone down, and switched bottles around on his sterile cabinets, acting as if he didn't see the vampire boy. He nonchalantly sauntered over to the closet, where he picked out a broom while he whistled an eerie tune. He walked slowly and carefully close to the spot the boy was at. In one swift motion he brought the end of the broom cracking down on the top of his head._

"_I told you not to come back here, Boy." He continued to whack him, a malicious gleam in his eye, "You're not welcome here, you traitorous monster!"_

"_Please! Veron! I need your help!" he cried, his voice coming out much weaker and younger and more afraid than he had anticipated, but he hoped the man would at least see that he was still the child he had been before the whole mess had started. _

"_Go away, don't come back, and stay away from my daughter! If you don't, God help me, I _will _kill you!" The young king scurried away from his only hope, his last resort, with a broken heart. _

_The scene changed once again. _

"_RUN!" the throaty whisper slivered down his neck and sent an alarm going off in his head. He began to, but it was dark._

_No, not dark. It was blank. Everything was blank._

_He continued to run despite it all, despite the growing fear that knotted in his stomach and welled in his throat, making him want to scream or cry or maybe even choke with emotion, despite the people he knew he would never see again. The muscles in his legs were aching and dying to stop and his lungs were on fire as they supported the elongated run and his stifled cries for help. But he had to keep going, and for some reason, he wanted to. He wanted to run until his immortal form gave out and by default was sent back to whatever hole he had crawled out of. Running seemed like the only option, and in the midst of the terror and fear, he never felt so alive. In his chest the hollow myocardium-thumps thrust themselves out and gutted back in, going faster than even his swift legs could take him. And during that moment of pure content with just running because it felt good despite the pain, is when he fell off the blank world. Everything was pitch-black, but his palely inflamed skin was fluorescently sticking out next to the dark and void world, and he knew where he ended and the darkness began. But when he fell, all he could see was the darkness. It was cooling, pressing, coursing through his own veins, causing him to feel it with in himself, trying to take control. And the numbness he felt put any frost bite to shame. And with that came somewhat ease, like the weight of the dark and shapeless world had been lifted off his shoulders. He was falling, simply falling as if it was something he did everyday, and, in a way, it felt like that, it was as if he was drifting off to sleep in the dry air that blew past him and enveloped him in a soft wind-cocoon. One in which he never wanted to leave. He closed his eyes and felt himself dissolve into it, succumb to the billowing darkness that soothed him into unconsciousness. That was, until a burst of light scorched him and when he opened his eyes again, he was somewhere different, someplace new and exotic. There was soft emerald grass and a wide azure sky that stretched on and never seemed to end, laced with white, puffy, cumulus clouds. But the most surprising thing he saw, the newest of all of these foreign concepts, was the bubblegum-haired maiden who shook his shoulders and brought him back with the living as she muttered another foreign term, one he had never heard before and could not even grasp its theory,_

"_Heal," there was a jaded gust of wind that ignited from the word and brought alleviation to the wounds he didn't realize were his._

"_What was that?" he asked, his lips finally finding the right syllables he seemed to have forgotten amidst the plunging darkness. _

"_It's a vartilimoselyptiac balm, but I just like to say heal for the fun of it…" When he gave her a funny look, she elaborated, "I healed you."_

Hmm…_he thought, _that's a first.

_Whatever pleasantries the kindly, and vaguely familiar, face brought him vanished before his eyes as the vision changed, like flowing water colors materializing on a blank canvas._

_It was the same vampire boy, albeit taller and with a lower-octave voice, but still too high for his liking. He was exploring through the woods, strumming his cheery-red axe bass as if there was never going to be a tomorrow. That the world would end any moment. He stumbled upon something rusty nestled in a tree, and configured it until it came to its breaking point, and obeyed the command the fourteen-year-old (in vampire years, of course) didn't even know he made. A mist of smoke veiled the large, rusty orb's contents, but it cleared moments after and he got a good look at what was inside of it. He smiled with recognition and carried the bundled piece of cloth to the nearest civilization he could find. The village around Boom Boom Mountain. _

Marshall's eyelids shot open as the final memory-fueled dream ended. He couldn't take a whole night of this. He'd only gotten two hours of sleep when he awoke, and he knew he wouldn't be getting anymore anytime soon. He glanced over at Fionna and smiled as she spoke in her sleep, the incoherent, discursive words she murmured gave away that she was only acutely aware of reality. But then what she was saying started to get scary. Pained cries of "No!" erupted from her throat, startling the 1,000+-year-old as he saw the twisted look on her face.

"Don't leave him! Don't leave him! Please, take him with us!"

"Someone please find him!"

"_No_!"

"**No**!"

"NO!"

Finally, Marshall Lee couldn't take another agonizing second of watching his dearly beloved's subconscious-induced torture.

"Fionna…" he soothed, sitting next to where she was laying down. He lifted her up to his lap by using a full nelson, so she would be laying down un-parallel to him, "Everything's okay…I'm here...I'm not going to let anything happen to you…don't worry about a thing…I've gotcha…I'm not going to let go of you…"

"Hmm…?" her perspective of reality was delicate, her mind somewhere in between the nightmare and the living.

"I've gotcha…I'm not going to let you fall…"

She clung to his shirt and pulled herself up a tiny bit of the way to get a good look around, but ended up lying back down, landing back in Marshall's lap in utter defeat.

"Marshall…?"

"Shh…go back to sleep…" He mentally slapped himself after the words were out of his mouth. He should've remembered that Fionna only obeyed reverse-psychology. With renewed strength, she pushed herself up to a sitting position, and angled herself out of Marshall's lap.

"What do you think you were doing?"

"You were having a bad dream." He blushed, but it was well hidden in the darkness of midnight, so he continued in his usual cocky tone, "And you were screaming in your sleep and it woke me up. The only reason I bothered was because I couldn't get back to sleep…" She stared up at him with a knowing glint in her eyes, and it felt as if the ceruleans could cut through his lies.

"Hmm…I'm guessing you had a nightmare too?"

"Wasn't a nightmare. It was — I mean, vampires don't…dream."

Fionna just looked at him.

"Did that sound as stupid as it did in my head?"

"I think just a smidge more."

"Great."

"So, what was your nightmare about?"

"Like, I said, it wasn't a nightmare. It was just some memories…" he bent his knees and clamped them to his chest with his arms, just like the boy had done in his nightmare.

"Must've been some pretty bad memories. Mine was like I was reliving a moment, almost like a memory, but it was more like it was someone else's memory. Does that make any sense to you?"

"I think I know what you're talking about…"

"So, what where your memories of?"

"You know, just kid stuff."

"Kid stuff doesn't normally fall into the category of nightmare-subjects…Did something happen when you were a kid?"

"I guess you could say that…"  
"Whoa, don't recite your whole biography." She smiled a flippant smile.

"I don't know," he said, barely above a whisper, "Just some other reminders of how I'm good for nothing, through and through."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"It wasn't nothing."

"Yes. It was."

"Just tell me. There's no reason to be so…" she paused in search of the right word, "pretentious around me. Just tell me what's going wrong, if it doesn't hurt your kingliness's pride too much."

"That'd be a great feat. I may be a king, but only by default. I guess that's what it takes for me to be worth something…"

"That's not true!"

"Oh, really? I don't know if you noticed, but I'm the son of a demon. I was bitten at a young age. I was always a monster. I'm the lowest of the low." He let his dark bangs skid in front of his face as his head titled downwards in shame.

"But you don't do anything bad! You drink the color red. You have self-control."

"I didn't always. What you see before you today took over 1,000 years in the making. I've done horrible things. And Fionna, you're so pure, I don't even — No one could ever forgive me for what I've done."

"I forgive you."

"You don't know what I've done."

"I don't care. I forgive you anyways."

"How can you do that? What if I…what if I did this to the Candy Kingdom?"

"It can be rebuilt."

"What if I let my mom start sucking out the souls of everyone, in both Aaa and Ooo?"

"I still have that tape of your song."

"What if I sucked out all of the red from the sunset?"

"I'd watch the golds and purples and pinks flit across the clouds."

"What if I sucked Prince Gumball's blood?"

"Then Dr. Prince will just use more gum. I don't care what you've done in the past."

"But I do. My moral code, I just didn't forget it, I purposely acted against it. I was a monster. And I still am one."

"Don't say that! You're not like that."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I know you, Marshall Lee. You're a mathing fun good time, an adventure waiting to happen, but underneath it all you're some vast and unique person that can never be calculated. I can never guess what you'll do next. You're crazy talented musically, more than I could ever be, no matter how many computers I swallow, and your lyrics mean something. They tell stories of live-and-learn experiences, they share your scars, your hopes, your dreams. What would you have done that would've made you overlook all of the positive things about you?"

"You don't understand," he growled, "It was me! I caused the Mushroom War! I was their biggest and best bomb, because I was their only bomb. I couldn't die since I'd already been bitten, so both opposing sides used me to their advantage. All they had to do was get me mad. And I let it happen! Don't you see? I'm the reason you're the last human! I killed your parents and your entire species! I caused the rippled that created Ooo. I broke the Earth into chunks, and broke the fabric of reality along with it. I'm what your dream was about.

"I'm your worst nightmare."

_AN:_

_Review, or I swear to GLOB, I will suddenly make this a Jake x Marceline fic for no apparent reason. _


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimers: You never learn, do you?

Jake peeked one eye out from under a lazy eyelid to see if the coast was clear, and using his stretchy powers, he managed to escape the shelter while everyone else was asleep.

"Is it safe now?" whispered a low, feminine tenor.

"Mhmm." He nodded and smiled smugly to himself, turning to his prized beauty, "It must've been hard, though, tailing behind us, making sure you weren't spotted…"

"Shh, shh…" she placed a pale finger over his lips, "Don't worry about it." She smiled deviously, "It was _so _worth it. I've been waiting for this for a long time…"

_*trollface* U mad? Well, I am. I didn't get enough reviews. Just kidding, I got plenty! Thanks a million! That was for _**CandyIsYummyNomNom**_. :D And, of course, to keep the rest of you on your toes. See, normally when I don't get enough reviews, I start killing off characters, just to give people more incentive to press that juicy button at the end of this page. But this is one of those stories where I don't have to do that. It's a lovely feeling. Thank you. But I got a bunch of simplistic "No Jake x Marceline!" reviews. Come on. If you want me to add anything to the story, review it. As long as it doesn't interfere with anything I have planned, I will gladly throw in your request. If you have some advice, or critique, I'd love to hear it. If you like the story, and would like for it to stay exactly how it is, tell me what you liked about it and what I did right so I can put more emphasis on it. And _**EmberFilledSkies**_, you totally made my day. Super bubbly review. xD _

_And now for a Jakeceline-free chapter, for you, _**Neverthrive**_! (No seriously, I think both characters are missing in this chapter.) I'll let _**CandyIsYummyNomNom **_think what she (I'm guessing you're a girl) wants about that little implication._

Once the words were out of his mouth, Marshall Lee regretted them. There was no way Fionna could just let this slide like she did all the other hypothetical scenarios. Because this wasn't a hypothetical. This was real life, and something much bigger than the two of them. Something that stretched on through generations, something that killed so many, and ruined so many things for so many people. This was the Mushroom War they were talking about. This wasn't some make-believe raid on a castle. So this was the exception to Fionna's "unconditional" forgiveness. He knew she couldn't argue with what he said. And she didn't. They just sat there in silence for a few moments as Marshall Lee regretted his words, and Fionna chewed over them, trying to digest what they meant in relation to her. But Marshall Lee just couldn't stand to be around when she exploded, when she refused to forgive him, when she denounced him forever. He turned to go, leaving his one true love behind, the only person he ever truly wanted and truly could never have. As one foot stepped outside of the shelter, he felt the jerky feeling in his chest, like his whole being was shedding, ripping apart from his heart as he left it there on the floor, so it wouldn't plague him anymore. So that the feeling of his chest banging against his ribcage, like a caged bird desperate to return to her, wouldn't curse him in his new life dealing with the rift problem and living without his adventuress. However, there was something else there besides that heart-wrenching sensation, there was also a hand that slipped into his. In one fluent motion, he whirled around back to face her, she stood high on the tips of her toes, and her lips and his met.

To say that Marshall Lee was joyously surprised would be an exaggerated understatement. In the course of twenty seconds he had had his heart broken, mended, and on fire. Now, there could be no roof to top his elation. In all of his 1,000 years, that had been the best moment of his endless life. He forgot about the Mushroom War. He forgot about Gumball. (And telling by the fullness of the kiss, so had she.) And everything else just became fuzzier and out of focus. No, it didn't melt away like in the movies, all of their problems were still very much existent, but they didn't seem as real. They seemed like someone else's problems, someone far off and away from their mind's eye. They were living in the here and now, where vampire and human lips collided. And the only feeling besides euphoria Marshall Lee had, was complete and utter surprise, which led to confusion. Why was she kissing him? He knew he hadn't have made the move, she had. But why? Why now, after knowing about his past? About all of the horrible things he'd done? Was this a one time deal, just to prove how far her forgiveness went, or was she really kissing him because it's what she wanted to do for herself? He couldn't tell at the time, but he didn't pay much mind to the questions and just swatted them away lethargically as he sunk more and more into the passion of the kiss. But, kisses weren't meant to last forever, and she eventually pulled away from him, the duo breathless.

"I forgive you for anything you have ever done, and everything you will ever do. Get that through your head, kay?"

He just smiled dumbly.

"This definitely isn't the end of this little conversation, but for now, go to sleep, and there will be plenty of where that came from for you when you wake up." She claimed smoothly, crawling back over to the corner where she had been sleeping before. The nocturnal immortal, whose sleep schedule had already been set askew for this whole ordeal, found himself carrying off to sleep without a peep.

* * *

Princess Bubblegum had just about had it with Gumball and Dr. Princess's love-talk. It was sickening. When she met her true love, no way was she going to act as atrocious as they were. They were talking mostly about science, which was her favorite subject. Emphasis on the _was_. They started talking rationally, about who invented Punnett squares and which genes of white and black candy canes would transfer to their offspring, and it was fine, them just talking about offspring in general, but then they mentioned what their offspring would look like and quarreled over which child would have whose nose and what they would be good at, to which they both agreed science. And even that was better than the mushy-talk that followed. What they were saying — it was as if they had created their own little language, most of words coming out of their mouths shouldn't have even been considered real words. And Bubblegum had had enough.

"Are you guys going to seriously be talking like that for this entire time? I mean, come ON! Who cares if the baby has his nose or her nose, quite frankly, with all this talking going on, I wouldn't want either of you to have kids! Because then another unfortunate soul will have to listen to your incessant chattering!"

A few seconds of silence passed before she recanted.

"Oh my glob! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it, honestly, I was just fed up with waiting and — really I'm sorry!"

"Relax, it's okay, Bubblegum. We were getting a little carried away, I guess." Gumball blushed, his pink skin turning an even darker shade. Dr. Princess just smiled politely, indicating it didn't really matter to her.

"Well, it's getting pretty late. We should all get some sleep." Gumball suggested.

"Okay. But not a peep out of you two. Please."

"Alright, alright." Gumball huddled in the corner next to Dr. Princess and Bubblegum curled up against the icy flooring the best she could.  
There were a few moments of peace. Shafts of color flitted in through the singular, window carving as the stars generously gave up their incandescent light to the denizens of Ooo. The sky was never really black outside, but rather a dark, celestial-studded amethyst that acted as a cover against some luminescent outside force, causing it to look much like a burning, purple ember as it lit, then extinguished itself constantly, almost as if the whole sky was split in to two sides, combating against each other in a full-scale civil war. This thought amused Bonnibel as she gazed up at it, her eyes suddenly glued like fly paper. It fascinated her now, as she thought of how a glow like that was scientifically possible. It could have been the stars, casting shadows around like a fisherman would cast a line. Or it might have been the moon's pull on the tides. No — wait. That didn't make much sense. Maybe it was the way Ooo was rotating on a tilted axis. Princess Bubblegum, herself, was the one that first proposed the theory that Ooo was on an axis set askew, so that every year the entire land was changing it's alignment with the other planets and the sun. Some people believed it was dangerous, but the land was moving on a horizontal plane, not tempering with the distance it held from the sun, therefore it shouldn't have anymore affect than maybe an earthquake here or there or a change in the tide everyone in a while. Maybe snow in the Fire Kingdom from time to time, but that was about it. They all really had nothing to worry about. Ooo was the safest place to live in the whole galaxy, even Lumpy Space wasn't as sound as the vast meadows, billowing seas, and rugged mountains of Ooo. And that was how Bubblegum figured that they were being held captive in Ice King's fortress rather than Ice Queen's. Because Aaa's sky didn't have the same quality Ooo's had. It didn't have that sort of sun-fracturing-water-to-make-a-bottom-of-a-pool-act-like-a-prism deal going on. Instead, they had something called an "aurora borealis" which could be found near Ice Queen's fortress in the Ice Kingdom.

As Bubblegum stared at the sky in those few peaceful moments, it was like eons to her, as she let her thoughts run away with her. But after that small amount of time had passed, she noted that there was indeed something else different about the night sky. Not with the comparison of Ooo to Aaa, but from this night sky in Ooo to any other night sky that had taken place before. There was a green flash of light, a swamp brown in the middle somewhere. The noise of accented squawking could be picked up from miles away. Bubblegum jumped to her feet and yelled to the other prisoners.

"Guys! Get up! Something's happening!" she shrieked.

And the time it took her to turn around and shake them both awake, whatever had caused the light was staring at them from the window. They all gasped and recognized who it was immediately.

The Cosmic Owl.

_AN:_

_Daaaang! Short chapter! I am so mean to you guys. Well, I wrote the first kissing scene of this weeks ago, but other things have managed to eat up my time since then. I wanted to write something for you AMAmazing people real quick to excuse my absence for the next week. And I'm just going to say it. _

_I started another story. I know, I know, incredibly dastardly of me, right? It's a Danny Phantom one, though, if that's any consolation. And unlike all the others I've removed from my schedule to make room for this one, I'm actually ½ of the way done with the second chapter. I never get past chapter two on the stories I've written while also writing this one, because I love Adventure Time, but I started watching Danny Phantom again just for kicks and just had to write something for it. And, *gulp* I hate to admit it, but the chapters I'm writing for it are a lot longer than the average chapter for this story. Mostly because it takes longer, but I wanted to make it longer, so I took the time. That explains my dastardly absence, I guess. Well, that's it for now, and remember, kids, reviews make me work faster! :D Come on, who doesn't want me to work faster?_


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Adventure Time. Let the games _begin_.

_Okay, well, someone requested double rainbow or skittle references, so that will come shortly after I'm done with this mini arc. (Writer's term, sorry if you don't understand what that means, but most people should.) Alright, I'm trying to make this cover three chapters, but knowing me I'll get it all done in one. :/ Curse my dastardly speed demon blood! Well, guess what this arc is about? MARCELINE! Here we go!_

Once Marceline stepped foot into the portal, she knew something about her trajectory was off. There wasn't the normal plume of varying colors and smells and feelings, as if emotions were vicious fledglings, reaching out to tear each and every dimension-traveler apart. Normally, when one would pass through the rift, it felt like their senses were overriding, that all things that could be experienced, were. It didn't hurt, really, because all of the bad was canceled out by the good, and vice versa. It just felt…overwhelming, for lack of a better word. One could be freezing and melting all at the same time, and maybe never detect any variance. However, when she stepped into the rift this time, she was left with an absolutely hollow feeling. The whole space was hollow, as black as the soul of the Lich King, and as endless as her own immortal life-span. Where her ears would normally be bombarded with several sounds, some, the voices of angels, others, a cacophony of blood-curdling screams, there was nothing. Where her skin was normally soaked with scratches as fierce as LSP swore her new dress was, and soft touches as delicate as moth wings, there was nothing but the cold shoulder of absence. She was floating nor standing, resting somewhere in between, with her feet walking, but perceiving not a trace of ground. She shouted the incantation a second time, once plunged inside of the annulled void, but there was still no sound, as if the very emptiness that encased her prohibited the smallest vibration to germinate and replicate her normal, melodious voice. Her hands immediately flitted to her mouth by instinct, as if searching them for any answers. She tried to talk again, but only succeeded in mouthing, 'What the zip?' Now that her hands were there — pressing against her lips, desperately perusing them for something, _anything_ — she could feel something truly frightening. As if the whole scene wasn't aberrant enough, and that it wasn't startling sufficiently for her voice to be missing, but so was her breath. Nothing parted from her lips, and nothing came in, as if acting as some perilous vortex the whole universe was avoiding. To say her frustration and flat-out discomfort was mounting by the moment, would be an understatement. She raised one hand in hopes of summoning her axe bass (which, seeing as it was her family's heirloom, she could do), but when nothing happened, not even a spark, she had to bite back a curse. Realizing no one could hear her a moment later, she shouted as loud as she could — which still would amount to nothing, not a single sound. Turning around fiercely, she analyzed the idea of jumping back through the portal, but it had vanished a while ago — how long had she been there, anyways? Did time even work properly here? — leaving her with not escape route. Then something before her, something cloaked in the ever-present darkness, twitched. The scene playing out before her reminded her of an old movie, one before the 'Shroom War, about a shark…she couldn't recall the name, but under the pressure of the deafening silence, her ears played the music from that movie, if only she could remember the name…

The thing before her, as it bubbled under the blanket of darkness, resembled the shark, slicing through the water, but at a slower pace. Even at this slower pace, however, it caught up with her rather quickly. She turned to run, or float, or whatever she could do to steer clear of the anomaly creeping closer and closer to her, but onyx coils snaked around her legs, wrenching them free of eclectic will. It soon reached her, diving straight into her rib cage, finding its way into her blood stream, now coursing through her veins. Gradually, after the shock and fear had dissipated, she recognized the familiar feeling, that slow in her heart beat, the languid sensation in her mouth, making her tongue feel fat and heavy, causing her eyes to droop apathetically, the lethargic atmosphere encompassing her that was not worth the fight. Before she finally lost her grip on consciousness, realization washed over her in a torpid haze. It was a sort of tranquilizer used before the War.

0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0—OYOSHTEHZUNAY—0—0—0—0—0—0—0—0

When Marceline came to, she found the bliss ignorance of feeling had been vanquished by the biting manacles circumnavigating her wrists and the metallic headdress keeping her forehead level with the confining chair pressing against her back in a straight, impartial line. On her ankles, she was involuntarily sporting a pair congruent to the ones chaffing her wrists, creating identical blisters on all four appendages. Her arms were bent back to fit in to the restraints and her leg were pressed to the two front legs of the chair, as if to keep her entire front side exposed, without the luxury of flinching. The rest of the area was pitch-black, her captor no doubt somewhere veiled behind the darkness. There was a low growling noise humming into existence, swooping over her like a large tidal wave cresting over the surf. The low growl got louder, and turned to a sound more of panting than of growling, but boomed around the unspecified space with the same consistency.

"Oh, foolish girl, meddling in things you shouldn't…if only you knew how in over your head you were…"

She recognized that voice…somehow…

"Oh, if only she knew…"

And that second voice, it was like the first, but feminine. She was probably dealing with inter-dimensional Doppler-gangers.

"Oh, well of it isn't the Lich King…and the Bich Queen!"

"You will learn your place, girl!" hissed the Lich Queen from somewhere in the abyss. In front of her, a sudden burst of light erupted and scorched her skin, causing pale blue blisters to sprout on patches of uncovered skin. She released a strangled hiss in protest at the sudden light, which was worse than the sun on the hottest day of summer. It ended swiftly after her cry and a row of lights turned off, causing a domino effect to all phosphorus light behind the first row with a satisfying click.

"Enough! Or do you _want _me to suck out your souls?"

"Please. Our souls would probably taste like death. Or Denny's."

"That doesn't mean I wouldn't suck them out, you stupid Witch King knock-offs."

"But I guess that _does_ mean we'd have to get rid of you first…" the voices trailed off into dust, "Won't we…?" until there was nothing left.

For a few moments Marceline sat in silence. Then the reality of the conversation weighed down on her.

"Dad." She whispered.

"Dad!" she shouted.

"DAD!" she screeched, feverishly throwing herself to the ground in a pathetic attempt to escape. The ground around her began to swell, the ripples throwing her chair back upright and reaching for her arms. She hissed and drew her fangs out, biting down on the tar-like substance that refused to part from her grey skin. The iron cuffs on her wrists slid off and her leg shackles fell in halves, clanking uselessly on the onyx floor. The swell of darkness twisted around in a swirling column, spinning and twirling until it finally came to an abrupt stop, forming a figure as tall as Marceline herself. The darkness dispelled and her eyes widened as she took in the being in front of her.

_AN:_

_I suck._

_I mean I _REALLY _suck. _

_I am well aware. I've currently been bingeing on FMA Brotherhood, Hetalia, Fairy Tail, and Dragon Ball Z. With a bunch of school stuff and club meetings too. And sports, of course. And I'm constantly editing and writing more chapters for my manuscript to beef it up. So, yeah, busy as always. _

_Review, and this will move up on my list of priorities. _

_And I won't kill anymore baby squirrels. _


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own procrastination. I AM procrastination.

_I am so, so, so, SO sorry! Over thanksgiving break, I wrote an FMA:B fic that was nearly 11,000 words, and even though it doesn't have many reviews, 98 people have put it in their favorite's list, so somehow it rose to the top on the list of my priorities. And I'm in a horror movie. Excuses, excuses, I know, I know. (The fic is Parental!RoyEd if anyone wants to check it out….) And according to an interview with Pen, Abraham Lincoln is their Jesus Christ, so I kind of incorporated him into the mix of my ever-fluffy romance. ANYWAY! Gather round the campfire, children, it's time for a story. _

"A-A-A-Abraham _Lincoln_?" Marceline inquired, disbelief coursing through her cerulean eyes. That wasn't him. That wasn't him. She knew it wasn't. It couldn't be. Even if it was him, by some unbelievable miracle, it wasn't him who had saved her. It was the swelling darkness that ebbed and flowed as if being a real river, that was her savior, because Abraham Lincoln would never stoop to such a low as to save anyone of her species. She reached a pale hand out toward him hesitantly, as if any mere touch could shatter his very existence, or prove it to be fabricated. He smiled good-naturedly at her doubtful body language and took her hand in his, so she could feel his skin and know that he was truly there. Her eyes widened as he rubbed comforting circles into the back of her hand. His flesh…it was so real, so warm, so soft, so solid…this was him. This was Abraham Lincoln.

"Yes, my child." His voice was like a divine angel choir and brought light to the blanket of darkness they were so heavily bundled up in. It was gentle and soft, in a way that radiated pure grace and faultless ambitions to help the needy and the suffering. To help _her._

Heh. Wait till the folks back home get a load of this.

"Now, go. Your father is in trouble. Marshall Lee's mother as well. You are the only one who can help them at this point."

"What do you mean? Why can't you?"

"It is not my place. It is _your_ birthright."

"What about everyone else? Why not Finn? Or Jake? Or Marshall Lee?"

"Because, my dear child, everyone is being launched into Aaa as we speak. The entire Land of Ooo is merging. The citizens, royalty, mountains, deserts, it makes no difference, rich and poor alike, everything is tumbling through the rift towards one single destination. And after that, there can be no escape."

* * *

"Stop it!" Princess Bubblegum shouted, picking up discarded remains of the tower, "We have to stop it somehow!"

"There's nothing we can do!" Prince Gumball called back, wrenching the debris out of her hands, so that they flew out and to the ground. The noise of the landing, however, could not be heard even by the most trained of ears. The ground was shaking too badly, as if somehow terrified of the prophesized owl, who really had no business in Ooo at the moment. There were no Whywolves overpopulating the vast green meadows, slate grey mountains, and navy seas that found refuge in Ooo. But still, the great Cosmic Owl remained, swiping its wings back and forth like a trained killer with a knife, the malevolent effect of his malice not going unnoticed by its cause.

"Yes, there is! We just have to think about this scientifically!" she huffed, panic slipping through the cracks of her calm smile.

"No, we have to think about this medically!" he yelled back, as he ran to Dr. Princess, "She's probably injured from that big earthquake. We have to get her to a doctor!"

Bonnibel gave a laugh at such a high pitch, it hovered on the verge of hysteria. She threw her shoulders back and spread her arms wide, her fingers curling and uncurling maniacally. When she lost vigor in the first five seconds, it turned into a bark, a loud, rough, and vicious sound that must have been as painful as rubbing her vocal chords against loose gravel. Then it contorted into a low growl, maligning undercurrents ever present in the tone it was forced from her lips with.

"What?" she tilted her head, "Don't you see the irony?" she forged the words with some difficulty over her smirking lips and faded cackle. Prince Gumball scowled and stood in between his now-mad doppelganger and his prized beauty, proceeding to walk warily towards the fallen princess.

"She's a doctor! We can't take her to herself! And even if we had others as skilled as her, they probably died in that explosion! Or this earthquake! They're dead! All of them — dead! And we're soon going to join them! We're all going to die! All of us! Even me and you! We're going to die!" the rattling earth beneath their feet did more to further prove her point, "I'm going to die! She's going to die, so a doctor wouldn't even do us any good is you ignored my other reasons! And why are you so worried about her, anyway? You're going to die, too, shouldn't you be more concerned about that?"

In one swift, fluent motion, Gumball slapped his sticky hand across her pink face. Even through the howls of the protesting ground, a punctual air of silence descended upon the two. She blinked a couple times before it dawned on her. She stood up straighter and pressed her eyes close.

"Thank you. I needed that. I just—" A glistening tear reflected against the moonlight as it slipped silently down the side of her face. "Like you said, our whole lives we've depended on Finn or Fionna to keep us safe, to rescue us from whatever danger fate saw fit to let come our way. But now — when they're nowhere to be found…" she trailed off. She smiled a toothy grin and Gumball realized he had to get her keep talking about sane things or she was just going to be lost to hysteria.

"Tell me, Bubblegum, tell me how you feel about Finn."

"He's like my little brother, but he can kick evil's can like no one else, and I can't help but sometimes feel intimidated by his strength and noble deeds. So, occasionally, I feel like he's the one with authority over me, even though I'm the one who's royalty. He's not one to let his fame get to his head. Even though basically all the princesses in the kingdom are in love him, he doesn't seem to notice. He's a sweet kid, really. Too innocent to know the Mushroom War or why he's the only human. I don't have the heart to tell him, but I'd rather it be from my lips rather than someone else that he learns of it. With this still in mind, I really don't think I have the guts. Maybe he'll never know, and I'll just be even more of a disservice to him, even after all he's done for me with nothing in return."

Suddenly, as if pleased with her words, the Whywolves' keeper stopped the earthquake. But something even more horrifying took its dastardly place. Gumball seemed to be seeing to images. The ruins of Ice King's castle, and Ice Queen's fully-intact domain. The images kept shifting and shifting, like a holographic baseball card, until they settled into each other, and Ice King's castle faded away, leaving only the Ice Queen's residence as an insincere goodbye.

"Are we…in Aaa?"

* * *

"Fionna! Fionna, wake up! Please, stay with me, Globlumpit! You can't die _now_!" Marshall Lee shook her gently, whispering words in such a manner that would bring any fearless king to shame, more specifically the fearless king he was supposed to be. How could he hope to lead an entire species when he couldn't even save a mere mortal? With her rarity, came her beauty, and with her beauty, came her weakness. They had all fallen into Aaa harshly because a kingdom-wide-earthquake of that magnitude was bound to have some side-effects to dimension hopping. No — that wasn't dimension hopping they had done, Marshall Lee was certain of it. When he dimensioned hopped, he always had to pass through that swirling mass of supernatural fullness, but this time it was more like the dimensions were…melting into one another.

Clearly that couldn't have been good.

_AN:_

_Disregard what I said about the three chapter Marceline arc. I'm far too stupid to actually pull it off. And, yeah, I know freaky stuff. But I have the most amazingly touching climax in all of the UNIVERSE for our little adventuress and her vampire boyfriend. ;D_


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: D:(

_My, it's been awhile. My last update was such bull and in all honesty, I had given up on updating this thing due to the lack of reviews. But then a magical artist came along, who goes by the mystical name of _**SparklyvampireFTW**_ and drew a fan art of the first chapter that absolutely blew my mind. Like, wow. Such an honor. So this chapter is dedicated to that magical artist. I suggest you all PM a huge thank you sparkvamp's way. _

"Marshall Lee." Fionna crossed her arms, "Marshall Lee, look at me."

"What?" he regrettably turned to face the adventuress.

"It's morning. Aren't you going to tell me what the math is going on?"

The two sat just on the outskirts of a fully-intact Candy Kingdom, and Fionna had one too many questions.

"…The Cosmic Owl."

"That big ole mystical bird myth?"

"Not a myth. A prophecy. Only few know that the Cosmic Owl has a larger purpose outside the Whywolves' population. For us, it's not much of a big deal. But for the resident's of Ooo…it's their end."

"Their end? The zip?" she uncrossed her arms, "Why?"

"Well…I promised I would tell you. So I might as well start from the beginning. I was born in a time when all of the enchanted, forested areas and the bright, flaming tongues of the fire kingdom were all pavement and skyscrapers. And, no, not those things you use to scrape clouds off your windows. Skyscrapers were enormously tall buildings. And the only creatures in existence were humans and poo-brain animals. So, when I was bitten, it was a huge deal. Being half-demon was too. I was taken to a special doctor who wasn't really a doctor. He was a scientist who specialized in…in experiments. His name was Veron. Veron tried his best to cure me, but it only made things worse. He sharpened my abilities, so whenever I was angered, immense waves of power were emitted off of me. Also a patient of his, was Ashlee. She was the first manifestation of the mutated effects the Mushroom War brought. The second was a mutated experiment done by Veron himself. You know that experiment today, by the name of Gumball. He did it by mixing human DNA and bubblegum together. Well, with what Veron did to me, and my immortality, I was used by the army as a bomb because after they got me mad, I could just regenerate and they would start all over again, bombing people left and right. There was a countdown clock to detonating time on the palm of my hand. It reappears whenever I get extremely mad, so I try hard to control my anger.

"Veron soon realized that if things continued as they were, he would be killed as well. As he saw me as a threat more and more, he began to beat me a lot and went to great lengths to make sure I knew I wasn't welcomed by him or his family any more. Which was a shame, because once upon a time me and Gumball actually got along. Then again, he was only a few months old then. Also, he had a cute daughter. She was the only one I could ever remember smiling at me, so I couldn't just forget about her. Or his wife, Celeste, who was so much like a mother to me. But then he and his family, Gumball included thanks to Celeste's beseeching, went into cryogenic pods underground to hide from me and the destruction that blazed my path. I went on living, bombing, and one day I got really angry at Ashlee. She was the only one I had left, but she was just so bossy and smothering, I couldn't help but get mad. Like, insanely mad. It was such a big explosion, only those mutated survived. That was how Ooo was created. I don't know how, but the waves of that massive detonation split the world into two dimensions. After that, creatures started to rise from the ashes. Aaa was thriving in no time. A few years ago, Gumball was found. And then…that last human daughter…was found by…um….someone in Boom Boom Mountain."

"Me?"

"Yes. I'm not sure if your parents didn't make it, or if they were just simply never found in their capsules, but I've had no word of them. I've always known about the rift, though I just started visiting Marceline a few weeks ago. But the rift has been trying to heal itself all this time, to return to Aaa, and become one dimension. I don't think that if we hadn't done anything, it would have happened anyway. I thought there was something we did to speed up the healing process, but I now I see there had been another force pushing the two dimensions together the whole time. That force is Abraham Lincoln and the Cosmic Owl."

_AN:_

_Written in ten minutes. I feel terrible about this guys, so I'll make a deal with you. If I get 25 reviews for this chapter, I'll make a 5,000 (That means Chapter XI could fit inside of it six times) word chapter with fluff and romance and it will be done by Monday. Deal? _


	12. Chapter 12

_Disclaimer: Okay. _

_I'm pretty sure the term "heartgut" is exclusive to the Adventure Time fandom. You'll see what I mean in a minute._

"Come on, Princess, it's not a far way away, you can still make it." Gumball urged his doppelganger as they straggled along the crushed graham cracker path, "You see the castle? It's just a little further."

But the saccharine princess was too out of it to hear his words of encouragement, and the smoldering inspiration that once fueled her journey had fallen from her face hours ago. Her tyrian purple eyes had sunk to a dull gray, her lips were cracked like ancient pottery, and the carnation color had drained from her skin, leaving in its wake a sickly puce. The rest of her party were in no better condition, grotesque fuchsia scabs marred the prince's otherwise flawless skin and Dr. Princess was still having hallucinations due to the scorching heat. The trip to the Candy Kingdom was days that stretched into weeks and morphed into months. Grains of sand that belonged to a curved, glass structure seemed to fall like rain in heartgut-wrenching slow motion. The worn and weary silence plucked the strings of a maladroit instrument, producing a taut cry to their malnourished ears.

Such pansies. It was only sunrise of the first day, they weren't even out in the sun for a third of the time they had spent walking. But for Bubblegum and Dr. Princess, the elements attacking them so vehemently weren't all in their head. The strain they felt was perfectly natural, considering the circumstances. Ooo was destroyed, completely obliterated by the Cosmic Owl who answered Abe's call. For these two ladies, it would soon be more than a few unbearable headaches and weak knees. It would be the end of their existence.

They had made it past the draw-bridge and were now making their way inside the castle. Most of the candy citizens politely averted their eyes to the unprepossessing sight of fallen royalty, but a few fledglings unversed in proper candy people etiquette stole glances at the passing trio despite their mother's best attempts to keep them at bay. And even with the small noises of unseeing children giggling, the grisly silence's anthem played.

And the deposed nobility crawled onward, just as unseeing.

* * *

Her obsidian hair was flung in her eyes, the sweat on her forehead effectively pinning it to place. Her cerulean jeans were ripped in several places and her skin was a little stiff from changing forms too often. But she saw no earthly way to care.

"Give him back **now**." She growled lowly. The Lich King and herself were both growing weary, and their time, thin. Her grip on the axe bass would slip from her hands from time to time due to her withering existence. Abe had warned her of this risk. And still, she couldn't see how to care.

"Ahahaha…" he barked a laugh as pitiable as his fate, "What difference does it make if you get to him or not? We're all going to fade away in a short time!"

"It makes all the difference!" she shouted fiercely, then desperately whispered, "Please. Just let me see him one last time…!"

"I don't see that harm…but I also don't see the gain. Don't you have anything to offer me?"

"Um…"

"That axe bass looks like it's in good condition."

She sighed, her fingers dematerializing and rematerializing around the instrument's neck.

"Take it."

He snatched it from her hands, petting the strings with sycophantic liking. Marceline tore right past him, scraping down the wall with outstretched claws. She darted through the falling debris with reckless abandon, and her arms were clamped around her father's torso in no time at all. Cold, soulless tears frizzled in and out of the physical plane at such a bittersweet reunion.

* * *

"Will the sacrifice come soon? If he waits too long…they could all be…"

"Peace, my child, peace. Everything will work itself out in the end. There's no need to fret. But we must depart soon ourselves, if anyone is to be spared."

"But will they be?"

"Perceptibly."

"…Even Booth…?"

"Especially Booth."

* * *

"Marshall Lee…You might want to take a look at this…" Fionna called to the king, who laid across the pink chaise with little regard for the mud tracked in.

"What is it?" he questioned, putting the gum drop throw pillow he was tossing down.

The two had made themselves quite at home in one of the guest rooms at the Candy Castle, and the opportunity for good jamming time was precariously close to ending. The outside crisis would mean nothing for a very little while longer, and then they would be summoned to play their role. All he had to do was ask her before time was up, and maybe they could get a few good verses in. But for some inexplicable reason, he had taken to stalling.

"I found this in Gumball's room…" she held a picture of a vampire and a young prince with their arms around each other's necks.

His face blanched.

"Why were you in his room?" he inquired flatly.

"Snooping." She confessed airily, "You were being a bit boring, I must say, so I went off in search of some entertainment."

She giggled at his angered expression.

"Oh, really? Well…" he brandished his axe bass and strummed a few notes, "How's that for entertainment? You ready to jam or what?"

"Finally! I thought you'd never ask!"

"I'm that predictable, am I?"

"Oh, just shut up and play."

"'You say so…Come in when you want." His fingers moved like lightning as he conjured up a tune.

"To know her, is to love her

I'm going undercover

To catch a glimpse, but not get caught

But to see her, could be worse

If I don't get my head straight first

On second thought I guess I'll not

She's almost brighter than the sun

Seems to me to be unfair

When you consider everyone

Who pales when they compare

When they compare

Can't hold a candle to her

Cause all the moths get in the way

And they'll began to chew her

Entire attire until it frays

For she outshines anyone

Whoever might dare to bask in the same candlelight

Oh, please, don't seat us in the back

With all the insects and the trash

She is a lady, I'm the tramp

Collecting stares from pairs close by

Then flutters in the butterflies

You, just a moth drawn to the lamp

She like an ancient artifact

Something you're lucky to have found

She'll pinch the nerves in all the necks

When she turns those heads around

Those head around

Can't hold a candle to her

Cause all the moths get in the way

And they'll begin to chew her

Entire attire until it frays

For she outshines anyone

Whoever might dare to bask in the same candlelight

Who may dare to bask in the same candlelight?

She's almost brighter than the—"

The song was interrupted by a bewildered native to the Kingdom, and two of its royalties.

_AN:_

_The song is Candlelight by Relient K._

_You know what to do. I shouldn't even have to say anything at this point, but just a quick question that will probably get me beat up..._

_Anyone here read Homestuck?_


	13. Chapter 13

Alright. I know I haven't updated in a while, and before the previous update, I hadn't been the most faithful author. I've dabbled in new fandoms and dove back into old ones, and this story just fell through the cracks. And even if it hadn't, I've been at ends with this part of the story for quite some time. Think of it as an inevitable writer's block, one I've always known would rear its ugly head. I have a perfect ending for this story, one that will put all arguments against Fiolee to rest, but I'm not sure how to make a bridge from where we are now to the ending. It's an arc I expected to take five to ten more chapters, but I don't think I can continue knowing what I have to do. So a few months ago I dropped this story. But it's been brought to my attention through incessant Private Messages that people aren't okay with that. So I decided I'm doing what is known in the world of professional music as a kickstarter.

For those of you who don't know what a kickstarter is, it's when an out of commission band has too many fans that want to bring them back. So the record company who sponsored the band acknowledges this and sets up a website that takes donations. If they get enough donations, the band will get back together. So that's what I'm doing. But don't worry, I'm not asking for money. What I want is to fill my quota of reviews. If I get up to 300 reviews, this story will start back up again with a 4,000-word chapter. If I get 320 reviews, I will make an update schedule. 340 reviews and the update schedule will be once a week. 350, and I start this back up with a 6,000-word chapter and the update schedule will be once a week. 360, and you get the 6,000-word starter and the ability to dictate an update schedule.

Now, when you donate to a kickstarter, you normally get prizes depending on how much you donate. The same is true with this one. If you give me a one-sentence review, you probably will receive a smiley face in your inbox, that is, if you're not an anon. If you give me a four-sentence review, you will receive a drabble about whatever pairing/character/scenario/AU you want, no matter what fandom. (Just make sure I am familiar with the fandom before requesting!) An eight-sentence review and you get a one-shot. 16-sentence review, and you get a two-shot. As the sentences double, so will the amount of chapters I write for you. I will make a collection with all of the requests and dedicate each one to the reviewer who requested. One grand prize winner (the one who writes the best review in my opinion, that has the perfect balance of constructive criticism and flattery, while being rather lengthy) will receive two face shot drawings of whatever character(s) they choose, five chapters of the request collections, the collection named after them, and their name will make a cameo appearance in this story. Does that sound cool? Probably not, but work with me. Normally you get stickers for a kickstarter.

Now here are the rules. I really appreciate quality over quantity, so only one review from each person is allowed per day. If you do it more than once a day, or spam it so that when you click "reviews" it just shows your name down the whole screen, only one of yours counts. Barely. Since if you spammed, it was probably not a very good review. I want these reviews to be about the story as a whole, so tell me what you loved, what you hated, areas I could improve in, things you'd change, etc! I can't wait to here from all of you!


	14. Chapter 14

Okay. I'm giving this story one last chance.

It's gotten me attention by the thousands when I didn't expect to get more than six reviews. Looking back and reading it, I kind of cringe at how ineffective my writing used to be, but apparently it was effective enough for you guys, so here's the deal.

There's a new movie by DreamWorks out called Rise of the Guardians.

I don't really care that much for cursing, but it is the best fucking movie I have ever seen. The animation is so life-like, and absolutely breathtaking in 3D. The storyline comes at you from out of nowhere, and makes your heart truly ache with empathy for the colorful assortment of characters. And Jack Frost. Do not get me started. He's a stunning lead with so many sides to him, the most dimensional character to ever come out of a DreamWorks' film, I'd say, and his troubles and faults and worries are so foreign, but in this ninety-seven minute time frame they're made so real and _familiar_. There are so many things he has to offer as a lead, there's something relatable for everyone.

It's just a really great movie, and to get in depth on why, I would probably end up spoiling it, so I'm going to stop now.

Unfortunately, because of a terrible advertisement job and premiere date on DreamWorks' part, this movie isn't doing so well in the box office. And that's all DreamWorks really cares about. This information tells them that we don't want to see plot-and-character-driven, heart-wrenching movies, rather Madagascar add-ons and fart jokes. Because of this, there also won't be a sequel. And I know what you're thinking, _Vantilene, sequels are never better than the original!_ Yes, that is true, but I trust the director (who I actually happen to know through some friends) and the animators who helped develop this film never to betray it for the sake of cranking out another cheap money-maker. I know everyone who worked on it adored every character and plot twist immensely, and that for some animators, it was the first time they had ever really gotten into what they were helping create. And for me, on top of it being such a fantastic movie, is what really makes it worthwhile to support something like this. Think of the animators chained to desks having to draw millions of Marty's and Alex's day in and day out, without ever really caring.

Also think about this. If at least five of you go to see the movie, I will start this story back up again. If you five get friends and family to go along with you, that will secure its continuation until it gets a proper funeral with the heart-warming ending that sparked this monstrosity in the first place. And for every person, I will give a oneshot of whatever they want, regardless of this project's success. Last time, we didn't reach our goal, so I didn't write any. But if you at least participate, you are automatically guaranteed something of 1,000 words or more. And even if five people and their families make sure this story goes out like I've always wanted it to, if you contribute, you still get a oneshot. And an irrevocable friendship with me. Not that that's worth much, but whatever.

Now, how will I know if you actually go see the movie? Submit a picture of your (or family/friend's) ticket stub to the url myvantilene on tumblr, and leave a description of what you want in a oneshot, and what fandom. You get extra pages if you go see it in 3D.

If you don't have a tumblr account, you can email it to me at wayne dot bruce at asia dot com.

Please, guys. I'm kind of metaphorically on my knees here. This happened to Treasure Planet and I cannot bear for it to happen to another movie I love. It means so much to me, you have no idea.


End file.
